Mental
by chocolatecheesecakes
Summary: When Lily Potter fell, she died to one world. But her mind made up another. A better world, with magic and monsters and a son in her womb.


This was written for the Second Task of the Triwizard Tournament!

Mental

"There's... There's no hope?" James said dully, looking across at the Doctor with no real recognition in his eyes. "None at all?"

Doctor Newby sighed, closing the folder and looking across at his client. Newby had told a lot of people that their family members were dead, then he had watched as the mothers cried and the wives screamed, and the brothers and sisters sat in a resounding, shocked silence.

But telling James Potter that his wife was trapped in her own head, with no way out, was one of the hardest things he had ever done.

"Look, Mr Potter." Newby continued, after a pregnant silence. "Your wife is physically fine. But that blow she sustained when she fell down the stairs... It damaged her brain. Perhaps permanently."

"W-w-what can I do?" James asked, twisting the wedding band around his finger constantly, trying to keep himself from screaming out Lily's name. It was all so... Fragmented, this reality. So bloody stupid. People died. James wanted to die, for gods sake. Life wasn't worth living without Lily by his side.

"She's suffered huge internal bleeding." The Doctor explained. "We've placed her on life support. She can stay there for as long as you wish her to, but you have to remember that, if she wakes up, then your wife will not be able to move the left side of her body, and she might have to be relocated to a nursing home."

James gripped the chair armrest with white fingers, making a lasting link to the material world. He would drift away. He knew he would. Lily, his love, his life... Dying in a hospital in Bristol.

"Can I see her?" James asked, opening his eyes again, having calmed his breathing. "Please, can I see my wife?"

The Doctor nodded, filing his papers away again. "Yes." He finally said audibly. "Mrs Potter isn't responding to any stimuli." He said cautiously, keeping one eye on James Potter as he stated so. "Sir, please, don't get your hopes up."

The corridors of the hospital were whiter than James had remembered, when he had walked into Doctor Newby's office, earlier that day, telling himself that Lily would be okay. That the stairs were just a piece of bad luck.

And there she was. Lying on the bed, in the starched sheets, in a room that smelled of disinfectant. The only thing of Lily were the flowers in the case, beside her bed. James took the wooden seat beside his wife, clutching her limp hand in his own clammy ones. He brushed a loose strand of red hair off her pale face.

"I'm here Lils." He murmured, stroking the back of her hand. "I'm here. It's James. I'm here."

oOo

"I'm here!" Someone called, making Lily wince. Her head ached like hell, and she could only see bright white light. "It's James! I'm here!"

"James..." Lily murmured, blinking a few times, trying to get the light out of her eyes. The last thing she remembered was... Falling? Falling off Remus's mother's porch steps, that was right. The man calling was her husband. "James?"

"Like I said, I'm here!" James was the first detail to be in any way visible. His messy black hair was sticking up in all directions, like he'd been dragged through a hedge backwards. He was holding a wooden stick- a wand, that was right.

"Why do I feel so groggy?" The world was still fuzzy at the edges, but James was clear, and the details were flowing back to her. Details of hate, then love, friendship and laughter and enemies. And a Dark... A Dark...

"Not a good idea to fall, when you're pregnant." James grinned, ruffling his hair up a bit more. Lily's eyes widened, but a little more information slipped in, almost too easily, to justify the life apparently growing within her.

It all felt a bit... Manufactured? But it seemed to make sense, to Lily, so she accepted it all.

That night, when she was lying in bed next to her husband, fast asleep, she dreamt. Dreamt of a normal - no, a Muggle world, where she had a job in a library and her husband was no magical... A-A-Auror, just a Civil Engineer.

No child. No magic. Magic didn't exist in that world. And when Lily woke up, sweating and breathing faster than she thought should be humanly possible, she decided that the world she dreamt about, was hell compared to her haven.

She never wanted to go back.


End file.
